1A girls basketball: Twait’s free throw lifts Serena past AFC for 3rd straight regional title

EARLVILLE — Over the past three seasons, Serena forward Paisley Twait has made numerous great plays to help her team win big games.

With just two-tenths of a second remaining in Thursday’s Class 1A Earlville Regional championship game against Ashton-Franklin-Center, her number was called once again.

And once again she came through.

Twait swished the first of two free tosses after being fouled driving to the basket to help the top-seeded Huskers claim their third straight regional championship with a 41-40 triumph over the No. 4 Raiders.

“I’m glad that I knew I had two shots, but I’ve been hearing from my dad (Serena boys basketball coach Dain Twait) ever since I can remember that you just have to make the first one,” Twait said. “I’m not sure if we were still using one-and-one rule how I would have handled the situation, but I guess we’ll never know. I was just relieved when the first one went through the net.”

Serena (26-5) advances to the semifinals of Gardner-South Wilmington Sectional on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. against either Elgin St. Edward or Harvest Christian Academy.

Ashton-Franklin Center finishes 22-10.

“Before the game I just asked them all to play the best they could. They all gave everything they had and did exactly what I asked them to do,” AFC coach Chris Jahn said. “The call at the end obviously hurt us, but I told the girls just now in the locker room, we won 22 games this year and flipped it from the 11 wins we had last year. What they need to take away is the fact that we had a great season and not focus on this one game here tonight.

“I asked them for their collective best game and that’s what they gave me and their teammates. I’m super proud of this group.”

Serena senior center Makalya McNally led the way with 22 points and 12 rebounds, while Twait added eight points, 10 rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals. Jenna Setchell chipped in six points, seven rebounds and three steals for the Huskers, who hit just 28% (15 of 53) from the floor, including 1 of 17 from beyond the arc, but held a 42-35 advantage on the boards.

The Huskers led 16-13 after one quarter and 25-23 at halftime but trailed AFC 32-31 heading to the fourth.

“We thought we’d be able to be successful with the high-low action against their zone with Paisley and Makayla and we were in the first half,” Serena coach Jim Jobst said. “The second half we didn’t get the ball in the middle as much as I would have liked, but AFC also made an adjustment to guard both of those options a little closer and leave the outside open.

“Give (AFC) credit, that was the right plan as we couldn’t seem to make a shot from the perimeter all game. We normally shoot the 3 a whole lot better, but for whatever reason they just wouldn’t fall for us tonight.”

A trey by Reese Polk and a layup by Brianna Gonnerman (10 points, 10 rebounds) in the opening two minutes of the fourth gave AFC a 37-31 lead.

Over the next four minutes, two McNally hoops, two free throws by Kendall Whiteaker and single charity tosses by Gwen O’Connell and Setchell put Serena up 39-37.

A free throw by Twait with 18.4 seconds remaining was followed by senior Taylor Jahn (17 points, five rebounds) calmly dribbling down the floor after an AFC timeout and using a double screen to launch and swish a 27-footer to tie the game at 40 with eight seconds remaining.

Serena quickly inbounded the ball to Twait who was fouled near the elbow.

“We all stepped up tonight and without doing that I’m not sure we’d pulled this one out,” Twait said. “The last two (regional titles) were so awesome, but this one means just a little more knowing this will be the last one for me. It’s been an amazing last three years with this team and now we’ll see if we can keep things going next Tuesday.”